Treffpunkt - Karlheinz Stockhausen - Intuitive Music

Around the Zodiac was the first show of the Ensemble New Flore. The all-Stockhausen program was:

  • Treffpunkt (double bass and clarinet)
  • In Freundschaft (solo clarinet)
  • Tierkreis, in a version with Paul Dirmeikis's poem Sirius on this music. The poem is part of SHU, poems on music by Karlheinz Stockhausen.

The premiere took place on January 21st, 2001, in "Le Tambourin", the concert hall of ARES, a Music School in Strasbourg, with Franck Cottet-Dumoulin (double bass), myself (Bb clarinet), and Jean-Luc Tartera (actor). Later in 2001 and 2002, we performed the show with the actor Maurice Gabioud in Gaillard, Villeurbanne, and Geneva.

Intuitive Music

The music you are listening to (well, if you hit play on the widget at the top of this page...) is intuitive music. While recording this track, we were inspired by Karlheinz Stockhausen's Treffpunkt, part of the cycle Aus den sieben Tagen. With Franck, we played this piece without any pre-conceived idea of a form. I remember we agreed on the very first pitch before playing. To play this intuitive music, we didn't rely on our previous experiences of improvisation in other contexts, but rather focused on Stockhausen's text for Treffpunkt, and on our instantaneous listening experience.

Sound engineer François Geneste recorded us directly on DAT, in the chapel of the Sacré-Coeur Middle School, Thonon-les-Bains, on May 12th, 2001. I love Franck's sound on this recording (I mean, when I listen to it on good headphones, not on my tiny laptop's built-in speakers), and François really managed to capture it in a beautiful way. The sound file is the raw recording: no sound processing has been used. Just 2 microphones and press record. Listen to more by Franck on youtube.

Aus den sieben Tagen's score is available from Universal Edition. In Freundschaft and Tierkreis's scores, as well as recordings supervised by Karlheinz Stockhausen, and beautiful Tierkreis music boxes, are available from Stockhausen Verlag.

Other recordings of Aus den sieben Tagen, In Freundschaft, and Tierkreis:

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